You could save $12 vs. pre-purchasing the game now from the NCSoft site. However, folks that pre-purchase the game now can play during the final beta weekend July 20-22. Pre-purchasers also get a three-day head start before the game's official release date of August 28, 2012.

Big cheers for ArenaNet's re-thinking of the Mesmer class. It's a nifty combination of medium-range illusion and close-up swordplay. For solo exploring, I seemed to be most effective with rapier in one hand and pistol in the other.

I found the Guardian to be quite durable/resilient. Even though GW2 requires that every single character have self-healing, it still seems helpful to have a guardian buffing the group in a large fight.

The Elementalist has an amazing array of skills available (since every weapon set has four different sets of skills that you can cycle through by changing your elemental attunement on the fly).

As a Ranger there are bazillions of pets to be charmed. I might miss the mostly-interrupter build that I was fond of in GW1.

I played only briefly with the Necromancer and none at all with the Engineer, Thief or Warrior.

Aside from the 8 professions, the 5 races (each with three individual character stories) seem entertaining. Each has a different feel to the story of fighting the Dragon.

This beta weekend was pretty disappointing compared to all the previous ones... Sure there were some new abilities for all classes, plus 2 new races + 2 new starting areas unlocked, BUT they have intentionally limited the amount of available servers, creating VERY long queues for WvW areas and random, very annoying lag spikes in WvW areas... Hopefully they'll fix this **** at release, especially the awful WvW queues.Also, I really, REALLY hope that ArenaNet will allow free server transfers in final game - it won't really be fair to force people to pay to transfer to another server because other people/guilds on same server are too dumb/disorganized when it comes to WvW... Yes, there will be a "matchmaking" system which will supposedly try to match the servers of equal "skill" after each WvW "round", but it still doesn't address the issue of the people on your server being dumb/disorganized and not fun to play with Oh, and it seems like they've added a huge amount of jumping puzzles into the game (for extra XP/rewards) - very bad decision, IMO: these things will simply annoy the people with bad reflexes (some jumps are pretty tricky) and will be made completely trivial as soon as the teleport hack will be out

My subscription allows you people to exist on this site and makes me a better human being than you'll ever be

... I really, REALLY hope that ArenaNet will allow free server transfers in final game ......

Nope, I think the first move is free and any other after that you'll have to pay for.

JohnC wrote:

teleport hack will be out

I really hope you are jesting. I found none of the vista views to be difficult in attaining. Nothing will break a MMO faster than hacking.

So for my review, I have played all three open beta weekends and 2 closed beta weekends. I never played GW1. I have played a lot of MMO's from EQ to SWTOR. However the longest 3 I spent time with were EQ, DAoC, and WoW. Just a little background. I have never been much of a PvPer, I like the PvE mostly.

What I think. Well for starters its a little overwhelming trying to get your bearings. The learning curve from other MMOs is a little steeper but its manageable. First off the UI is quite confusing at first and it really takes some effort into understanding it and using it. All the elements are there, minimap, skill bar, HuD but delving the menus is a little daunting. One I figured that out I was out questing in no time.

Questing, Its pretty much straightforward. You are given key points on the Map to visit that are signified by hearts. Upon moving into that area you usually stumble on some type of 'event' going on and you can just jump right in to help. They have every type of quest from gathering to escorts. Some are really easy but there are some that can get you in trouble quite quickly. You have to be careful. Those events that you definitely need a group for I wonder how they are going to be handled when the masses move from that area? Are they going to be tuned to be soloable or 2-3 manned? I came across such an event in the Norn's second map area that we needed like 12 or 13 to kill this mini-boss. We just had to graveyard zerg it.

All in all I like the questing. You pretty much explore and stumble upon quests. See a portion of the map uncovered, just go over there and there's bound to be some sort of quest or event for you.

XP came fast and with the fluidity of questing it wasnt really a concern. (In one 4 hour play time I was able to get to level 20 on a toon. I am sure that time will get smaller as I get used to the game) Upon completion of a quest or event you get a participation medal, bronze silver, gold; some XP and some sort of other currency thats in purple. I forget the name but I call it participation currency or PC. The PC is used to buy items from different area vendors that are either consumables or trinkets and even some weapons and armor. I liked this immensely as it didnt dip into your money and you could buy some good items with it if you know where to go.

Money, its hard to come by at first. 40 copper here, 1 silver there. I never had any more than 20-30 silver on me at any one time.

The Auction House (or whatever its called in GW2), Its quite easy to navigate just use the search features and you'll be presented with exactly what you are looking for. However, be careful when purchasing as it quite easy to buy more than one. I made the mistake of double clicking the buy button and got 2 of the same thing. Also the audible notification needs to be louder and/ or there needs to be some type of onscreen notification that you just bought something. Otherwise you may inadvertently buy more than intended.

Skills, I can say much about this as I am still trying to figure it out. You get trait points to fill up some special skills, like healing and buffs. Then theres this 'other' panel that deals with stuff like strength and defense that I didnt mess with because I didnt know how it worked. I just continued leveling and questing and seemed to do just fine ignoring it.

Class vendors, They are there and sell three books that I am not sure what they do. They dont sell you skills after you level up like other MMOs. So again Im not sure what they do.

Professions, Of all the professions I have played I played 3 of them. This weekend alone I got all three to 20. Elementist, I like this caster class but its a true glass cannon. I died a lot without some sort of melee to hold aggro. And if I got more than 2 on me its was intant death. Warrior, I love this class I cant say anything bad and this is going to be my starting class. I was sword and boarding it mostly but when I unlocked the ability to switch weapon sets I had my 2H sword on the ready for those big numbers. Engineer, I had fun with this class. The turrets are a blast.

Races, First off I dont like the Asura, humans, or Sylvari. I played the Norne and Char mostly. I based this mostly on the starting areas.

My one question is there going to be some sort of PvE end game, like raids that I can participate in? I didnt play GW1 so I dont know. Again I am not much of a PvPer. I just prefer the PvE boss scenarios.

Lastly theres still a ton of stuff I dont know about or confused about. But over all this seems like a good game to get into. Now I just have to find a guild that will help and to get my "other" online friends to make the jump with me! (yes I know TR has a guild)

(\_/) (O.o)(''')(''') Watch out for evil Terra-Tron; He Does not like you!

I really hope you are jesting. I found none of the vista views to be difficult in attaining. Nothing will break a MMO faster than hacking.

Some were annoyingly difficult. I know that huge spiral puzzle in Sylvari starting area (not a "vista view" but something else) was difficult for many people and very annoying considering when you fall from certain height on it - you die and have to either wait for some person to revive you or respawn at waypoint and run back...

Money, its hard to come by at first. 40 copper here, 1 silver there. I never had any more than 20-30 silver on me at any one time.

Yea, the regular currency is kind of a problem... Especially in WvW, where certain upgrades to certain structures (like the Waypoint for Stonemist Castle) cost up to 1.5 Gold, and those upgrades are "destroyed" once the opposing teams takes over the structure.

tanker27 wrote:

Then theres this 'other' panel that deals with stuff like strength and defense that I didnt mess with because I didnt know how it worked.

They are kinda like talent trees in WoW, except they are called "traits": http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait You need to buy a "Training manual" at your class trainer to unlock them.

tanker27 wrote:

Races, First off I dont like the Asura, humans, or Sylvari. I played the Norne and Char mostly. I based this mostly on the starting areas.

Yea, I'd have to say that Asura and Sylvari starting areas are kinda less fun and a little bit more "confusing" than other race areas... Their "capital" cities were also pretty annoying to navigate through.

tanker27 wrote:

My one question is there going to be some sort of PvE end game, like raids that I can participate in?

Yea, there are some "dungeons" - in beta they were located in certain area in starting areas... They had map icons of a "wooden door" and I believe the earliest you can go in is level 30... But if that is the only what you're looking for in this game - you might be really disappointed. The game's primary focus is on PvP, both "instanced arenas" (or "structural PvP") and the large WvWvW areas. The "instanced arenas" are as boring as in any other MMO game, but WvW is much more fun and beats any PvE content - you should really try it, you don't have to be "good" at PvP in order to have fun with it and you don't have to "grind" gear for it

My subscription allows you people to exist on this site and makes me a better human being than you'll ever be

My one question is there going to be some sort of PvE end game, like raids that I can participate in?

Yea, there are some "dungeons" - in beta they were located in certain area in starting areas... They had map icons of a "wooden door" and I believe the earliest you can go in is level 30... But if that is the only what you're looking for in this game - you might be really disappointed. The game's primary focus is on PvP, both "instanced arenas" (or "structural PvP") and the large WvWvW areas. The "instanced arenas" are as boring as in any other MMO game, but WvW is much more fun and beats any PvE content - you should really try it, you don't have to be "good" at PvP in order to have fun with it and you don't have to "grind" gear for it

I am sad about that. I just prefer PvE stuff more I was having a blast questing and doing the events and I was hoping that the PvE end game was much the same just on a larger scale.

(\_/) (O.o)(''')(''') Watch out for evil Terra-Tron; He Does not like you!

1. They fixed crafting by allowing you bank access while at a crafting station. I really hope this stays for release because it is needed to handle all those ingredients and intermediate products.

2. Mob kills seemed easier this weekend than in past beta events. I think they reduced the special abilities of mobs which made a marked difference. I don't know if I am happy about this or not.

3. They implemented their gem store (you could buy all the gems you want for the beta and spend them, and when the game releases in August you get back all the gems you bought in beta). They set the value at 80 gems for $1 real money. By the end of the beta gems were selling in the auction house for ~50 silver for 100 gems which calculates to 2 gold/$5. Of course, the beta gold value was hugely inflated due to no one having any money and everyone low level.

It will be interesting to see where the gold/dollar amount settles. Since you can craft your way to level 80 with crafting xp that makes it possible for someone to swipe their credit card, hit the auction house and craft a character to 80 in a few hours... yay you winz the internet!

I think the gem prices for buffs, vanity items, etc is a bit too expensive right now (A 1 hour buff gem store item for $1.56 doesn't seem like a good bargain to me.)

My one question is there going to be some sort of PvE end game, like raids that I can participate in?

Yea, there are some "dungeons" - in beta they were located in certain area in starting areas... They had map icons of a "wooden door" and I believe the earliest you can go in is level 30... But if that is the only what you're looking for in this game - you might be really disappointed. The game's primary focus is on PvP, both "instanced arenas" (or "structural PvP") and the large WvWvW areas. The "instanced arenas" are as boring as in any other MMO game, but WvW is much more fun and beats any PvE content - you should really try it, you don't have to be "good" at PvP in order to have fun with it and you don't have to "grind" gear for it

I am sad about that. I just prefer PvE stuff more I was having a blast questing and doing the events and I was hoping that the PvE end game was much the same just on a larger scale.

Well, there should be at least one big "raid" or some kind of encounter with mandatory big dragon, so I guess you could look forward for this... And WvWvW is basically the same as "events" in PvE - you break the doors/walls in keeps/castles then kill NPC guards and castle/keep "lord", which is more interesting since the people on opposing teams can defend it, and there are offensive/defensive siege weapons involved, which are fun by themselves... For example I was one of the defenders in Overlook keep in "Eternal Battlegrounds" WvW area, and the one of the opposing teams tried to set up a long-range siege weapons (trebuchets) next to "Mendon's Gap" tower to break the side wall of Overlook. Luckily, the Overlook was fully upgraded and one of the upgrades were Mortars, which are also long-range weapons and which are located on keep walls... As soon as I saw the built trebuchet - I manned the mortar and started to "zero in" on that trebuchet, while the trebuchet user tried to "zero in" on me (which is not easy to do - you need to fire few test shots and see where they land before determining how long you have to press the "fire" button, which is what determines the firing range), by some luck I managed to destroy that trebuchet first, then did the same thing with 2 other trebuchets which other team attempted to build at slightly different locations... Then I switched to other wall in Overlook to again use the mortar to protect the Veloka Slope tower from the other team which was attempting to break its wall... I had lots of fun even with these defensive siege weapons which allow you to not engage into close-quarter combat if this is what you dislike Also, remember that when you play in WvW areas you can't see the individual names of opposing team's characters (they are replaced by generic name for ALL opposing team's players), so nobody can prove that they "own3d" you by killing you and making a screenshot Seriously, you shouldn't completely dismiss WvW PvP unless you'll give it at leas a couple of hours of gameplay.

My subscription allows you people to exist on this site and makes me a better human being than you'll ever be

Those events that you definitely need a group for I wonder how they are going to be handled when the masses move from that area? Are they going to be tuned to be soloable or 2-3 manned? I came across such an event in the Norn's second map area that we needed like 12 or 13 to kill this mini-boss. We just had to graveyard zerg it.

Most of the events seem to scale with the number and level of players present.

When the Tamini invaded the human camp, my character was one level below the recommended minimum for that event and I was the only one around. The first 3 waves of centaurs weren't too bad for me and the NPC's to handle. When half a dozen other players showed up, the remaining waves of attackers were larger. When I did it with a couple of dozen other folks in a previous weekend, there were hordes and hordes of attackers.

Those events that you definitely need a group for I wonder how they are going to be handled when the masses move from that area? Are they going to be tuned to be soloable or 2-3 manned? I came across such an event in the Norn's second map area that we needed like 12 or 13 to kill this mini-boss. We just had to graveyard zerg it.

Most of the events seem to scale with the number and level of players present.

When the Tamini invaded the human camp, my character was one level below the recommended minimum for that event and I was the only one around. The first 3 waves of centaurs weren't too bad for me and the NPC's to handle. When half a dozen other players showed up, the remaining waves of attackers were larger. When I did it with a couple of dozen other folks in a previous weekend, there were hordes and hordes of attackers.

Yea, I believe the game simply increases the number of NPCs in an encounter... On my high level character I've tried some low-level dynamic events and could definitely kill stuff faster than I did when my character was at lower level, so I doubt the NPC stats are also increased.

My subscription allows you people to exist on this site and makes me a better human being than you'll ever be

Big cheers for ArenaNet's re-thinking of the Mesmer class. It's a nifty combination of medium-range illusion and close-up swordplay. For solo exploring, I seemed to be most effective with rapier in one hand and pistol in the other.I found the Guardian to be quite durable/resilient. Even though GW2 requires that every single character have self-healing, it still seems helpful to have a guardian buffing the group in a large fight.The Elementalist has an amazing array of skills available (since every weapon set has four different sets of skills that you can cycle through by changing your elemental attunement on the fly).As a Ranger there are bazillions of pets to be charmed. I might miss the mostly-interrupter build that I was fond of in GW1.I played only briefly with the Necromancer and none at all with the Engineer, Thief or Warrior.Aside from the 8 professions, the 5 races (each with three individual character stories) seem entertaining. Each has a different feel to the story of fighting the Dragon.

Bring on the full release on August 28!

Hey, you know I will be there!!!

Side Note: I had much difficulty in BWE3. My Nvidia card kept crashing until I downloaded a beta update from the Nvidia website. This stabilized things enough for me to play. There were many complaints on the Forum and I sent in numerous tickets. They must have changed some things because during the last stress test I was able to really play...as in move my toon without a 3 to 5 second delay and actually steer her in the direction I wanted to go. Was a much better experience which I attribute to a change in programming along with my new internet service.

August 28th, 2012—the day Guild Wars 2 launches—is fast approaching. Everyone here at ArenaNet is anxiously counting the days right along with every Guild Wars 2 fan. As you may have seen, we host a countdown timer on the front page of our official website.The information below will give you specific details about times and dates based on whether you pre-purchased, pre-ordered, or are picking up a copy of the game on release day. For those players who have not pre-purchased or pre-ordered the game, Guild Wars 2 will officially launch at 0:00 AM Pacific time (GMT -7:00) on August 28th.

Pre-Purchase with 3-Day Headstart: Everyone who pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 will enjoy three full days of Headstart Access. The three-day Headstart Access will officially begin at 0:00 AM Pacific time (GMT -7:00) on August 25th. However, please note that in order to ensure we’re fully prepared for that fateful hour we may bring servers online up to 3 hours prior. If you’re a player committed to getting in first to grab that character name of your dreams you’ll want to be keeping an eye on things during that time period.Pre-Order with 1-Day Headstart: Those who pre-ordered Guild Wars 2 will be able to participate in one day of Headstart Access. The one-day Headstart Access will begin at 0:00 AM Pacific time (GMT -7:00) on August 27th. NOTE - Pre-Order code registration is now enabled.

Download the Client today: If you’ve registered your pre-purchase or pre-order and created your Guild Wars 2 account you can go to account management today and download the client. Be sure to update the client periodically to minimize your download at launch. We look forward to seeing you in-game very soon!

19 hours from now I'll be expecting a guild invite . I have a friend that will almost always be on at the same time. He's rolling Human mage. Right now I'm still pretty partial to the engineer - possibly asura but nothing definite. Don't forget that they may release the lock on t he servers up to 3 hours earlier than what is currently listed as the pre-purchase head start. Make sure you update your client ASAP as the latest update I received took some time - you don't want your character name nabbed!

If your Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 accounts were linked and you played Guild Wars in the first 7 months of 2012, your character names from the original Guild Wars will be reserved through the official launch day on Tuesday.

Arenanet wrote:

How do I reserve the character names I'm using in Guild Wars for use in Guild Wars 2?

Reserve names by logging on to Guild Wars at any time after January 1, 2012 and before the name reservation list is built (the exact date will announced a few weeks before launch). Link your Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 accounts. Create a Guild Wars 2 character using the name(s) from your Guild Wars account. This step must be done during the Headstart Access period or on launch day. [11]